What can a business use in a crisis period, the Ministry of Economy said
A number of anti-crisis measures undertaken by the state are aimed at supporting SMEs.
As part of the anti-crisis measures undertaken by the state, special attention in Kazakhstan is paid to supporting small and medium-sized businesses, Today.kz reports. The director of the Department for Entrepreneurship Development of the Ministry of Economy Chingis Akhmetov spoke about them in detail during the briefing.
“The announced quarantine and forced restrictive measures had a negative impact on the activities of SMEs. The most affected sectors are catering, travel agencies, hotels, shopping centers, educational services, transportation, hairdressers, etc. As you know, a number of tax incentives and deferrals have already been taken. payments on loans, rental and utility payments, public procurement procedures and affordable concessional financing. Previously, the terms of the Business Roadmap 2025 program provided whether there was support for specific sectors of the economy, that is, there were industry restrictions. At the moment, these restrictions have been lifted. This means that any business entity has the opportunity to become a member of the program and receive preferential financing. Exceptions are for business entities whose activities do not fall under state support measures in accordance with the Entrepreneurial Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan, "he said.
Akhmetov emphasized that the cost of loans for the final borrower will not exceed 6% per annum, and the amount of credit support per entrepreneur is increased to 7 billion tenge.
"Financing of working capital replenishment has been significantly expanded. Today, such financing is the most popular type of lending. The amount of working capital replenishment loan has been increased to KZT 500 million and will be provided on a renewable basis. Enterprises engaged in the trade sector are entitled to receive state support for loans in the amount of not more than 100 million tenge. On the partial guarantee instrument, the loan amount was increased to 1 billion tenge, under which the guarantee amount will not exceed 50%. loans up to 360 million tenge will be covered by a guarantee of up to 85% of the loan amount, "he added.
The director of the department emphasized that the main objective of the Economics of Simple Things program is to saturate the domestic market with domestic goods, stimulate the competitiveness of the manufacturing industry, replace imports, and release a wide range of consumer goods.
“We include textile products, furniture, food production and much more. We have expanded the list of goods and services within the framework of this work. The total volume of lending under the program has been increased by 400 billion tenge to 1 trillion tenge. Of this amount, 700 billion tenge will be allocated for processing and production in the agro-industrial complex, 300 billion tenge for the manufacturing industry and services. At the same time, on behalf of the Head of State, funds in the amount of 100 billion tenge will be allocated to finance spring field work. On loans up to 5 billion tenge the size of the guarantee will be 30%. If the need for financing does not exceed 3 billion tenge, the guarantee will amount to 50% of the loan amount, "he stressed.
Along with these measures, according to Akhmetov, the National Bank has launched a new program of concessional lending to SMEs affected by the state of emergency. 600 billion tenge were allocated for these purposes. Loans will be issued to replenish working capital at a rate of 8% with a loan term of up to 1 year.
Gulsayai Zeynelgabdinova, Director of the Department for Relations with Government Bodies of JSC "FRP" Damu ", spoke about the tools of the fund.
“We offer four main tools. These are soft loans, subsidizing interest rates, guaranteeing loans, online training and escorting clients to financial institutions. For example, a program to support the manufacturing industry, which is implemented at the expense of the National Fund with a rate of 6%. For this at the same rate, the state program for the development of productive employment and mass entrepreneurship Enbek, designed for micro and small businesses, is also being implemented. There are also programs to support SMEs for development of female entrepreneurship, "she said.
According to Zeynelgabdinova, for the 1st quarter of 2020, the Fund allocated over 10 billion tenge for soft lending programs.
“When the state of emergency in Kazakhstan was announced due to the unfavorable situation associated with the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus, the government of the Republic of Kazakhstan took anti-crisis measures to support entrepreneurs. And now the Fund is accepting applications under new conditions, that is, it is ready to consider projects in accordance with the adopted changes, for example, in order to speed up the decision-making process, they switched to a simplified mode for considering applications for project restructuring. Business Roadmap-2025 program, the term for considering applications for project restructuring has been reduced from 5 to 1 business day. Moreover, a delay in loan repayments is granted to an entrepreneur from 1 to 3 months or more at the discretion of the bank, and the entrepreneur can count on state subsidies in accordance with the new payment schedule at the end of the grace period, "says the head of the department.
She notes that during this period, restructuring was provided for 1869 subsidy projects in the amount of 147.5 billion tenge. The fund also considers new projects. Already supported 120 of them. The total loan amount amounted to 7.9 billion tenge.